Science Fiction Double Feature

Frankenweenie

** out of ****

Directed by: Tim Burton

Featuring the Voice Talents of: Charlie Tahan, Martin Landau, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Winona Ryder

Running time: 87 minutes

ParaNorman

*** out of ****

Directed by: Chris Butler and Sam Fell

Featuring the Voice Talents of: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Tucker Albrizzi and John Goodman

Running time: 93 minutes

As the leaves change hue to a Halloween orange, one late summer and one early autumn release – both remarkably alike – signal the arrival of the October holiday. Both films are aimed at families, albeit ones who enjoy the gleefully macabre and have a fondness for frightening monsters and haunted houses.

Beyond the genre, the similarities extend: both films lovingly embrace the conventions and iconography of the horror genre, focus on social outcasts with a fascination for those that are six feet under, and are dazzling pieces of stop-motion animation.

But while Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, a feature-length extension of the director’s 1984 short film deemed too scary for young audiences, is a clever throwback to classic monster mashes, it never becomes one. ParaNorman, on the other hand, is refreshingly irreverent and zips along with the wit of a strong Treehouse of Horror episode.

Burton’s film admirably pays tribute to the heyday of horror, with references to the Expressionist monster classic of the 1930s and the schlock value of mid-century B-movies. Heck, one could say that Burton and screenwriter John August even pay homage to earlier works in the director’s oeuvre.

Frankenweenie takes place in New Holland, a cozily conservative town with a massive pet cemetery. Young Victor (voiced by Charlie Tahan) spends his hours cooped up in his room making monster movies, designing the props and assembling the footage. The star of his films is Sparky, the pylon-headed family dog that is also Victor’s closest friend.

Victor’s parents (voiced by Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara) worry that their son should be more concerned with making friends and distracting himself from these home movies. However, when a car hits Sparky, killing the dog, Victor becomes more withdrawn and lonesome.

His new science teacher, the eccentric Mr. Rzykruski, enraptures Victor with thoughts of resurrection. Martin Landau provides the teacher’s voice, although the character’s face and tingly, thick accent blatantly recall horror movie icon Vincent Price.

Victor digs up Sparky’s corpse and sets up a highly mechanical laboratory in the attic on a rainy night. When lighting strikes Sparky, the dog’s muscle responds and he is born again.

At times, Frankenweenie is a direct embrace of Frankenstein, both the Mary Shelley novel and the James Whale film, from the dog next door with a similar hairdo to the monster’s bride to the protagonist’s scheming, hunchbacked companion (here, an annoyance named Edgar).

Burton lucidly draws upon the sci-fi horror genre to generate laughs and appease trivia fans. The exaggerated expressionistic features of many characters are delightfully strange – the auteur would not want it any other way – and the film is even in gaunt black-and-white, a rarity for a family film.

But Frankenweenie feels more like a collection of genre in-jokes than a refreshing jolt of entertainment, probably becomes it’s more concerned with dazzling us with icons and images the audience is already likely to be accustomed to.

The characters, while fortuitously designed, are more bland than bizarre. Victor and his parents are dull, stagnant creations, while other characters, such as a next-door neighbour voiced by Winona Ryder, does not have much of an impact on the story and little relationship to the protagonist (the friendship is merely hinted at).

Burton would rather have genre inflections lead the story than wield to the whims of the characters; unfortunately, unlike the title character, Frankenweenie never comes to life.

That lack of vitality and flair cannot be said of ParaNorman, a film that succeeds at doing what Frankenweenie wished it could: balancing somber themes of death and the afterlife with sly humour.

Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), like Victor in the previous film, is a social outcast that is obsessed with monster movies and the afterlife. However, his lack of friends is not due to his own insipidness, but because he can see and speak with dead people (including his own recently deceased grandmother). The townspeople gape at his interactions with ghosts, grimy green creations that the audience can also perceive.

However, Norman starts seeing bad omens of evil forces creeping up on the townspeople and decides to investigate their source. It belongs to a witch’s curse brought upon his town, Blithe Hollow, 300 years ago that will be unleashed on the anniversary of her death.

Our young protagonist must help to vanquish the curse before the undead rise and feed on Blithe Hollow’s inhabitants. Norman gets some much-needed help from superficial sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick), cheery and overweight best friend Neil (Tucker Albrizzi) and school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). 

ParaNorman restricts many of the supporting characters to their tropes for the first half and only lets these creations breathe as functioning people as the frantically paced story throttles forward and the threat of peril rises.

However, a gleefully macabre spirit permeates through the film, from lights touches such as Norman’s ringtone (a familiar horror movie theme) and oodles of visual humour. For instance, the zombies move at a rate that parallels the small increments that clay-mation creations move in that deliberate animation process.

This chipper sense of humour, more dialogue-based than slapstick, keeps the playful energy up. However, this humour is balanced out with an especially moving final act that explores the connections between the protagonist and the spirit he plans to vanquish.

Between Frankenweenie and ParaNorman, the latter film is more suited to become a family-friendly Halloween classic: although bumpy in places, it is more intricate in character, story and atmosphere, while meditating on dark themes with greater poignancy.